We now have rumored release dates for Nvidia’s inbound RTX Super refreshes for Lovelace, and they’ll seemingly be given a staggered release over the course of January.
IT Home (a Chinese tech site, and regular source of rumors – though treat them with a little extra caution on top of the usual teaspoon of doubt) has the info which is drawn from multiple sources we’re told (hat tip to VideoCardz).
The theory is after Nvidia has revealed the three new RTX 4070 and 4080 graphics cards on January 8 at a ‘special event’ for CES 2024, the first refresh to hit the shelves will be the RTX 4070 Super on January 17.
Following that we’ll see the RTX 4070 Ti Super a week later on January 24, and then finally the RTX 4080 Super will arrive on January 31, right at the end of the month.
So, they’ll be spaced out with a week between them, launching in order of their performance from least to most powerful. If this chatter from the various sources turns out to be correct, of course.
Rounding up previous rumors and theories, IT Home reckons that the RTX 4070 Super (12GB) will have a performance level close to the current RTX 4070 Ti, and be priced at around $599 to $649 in the US (and in line with that elsewhere, no doubt).
Above it, the new RTX 4070 Ti Super (16GB) will be something like 15% to 20% faster than the RTX 4070 Ti with a price tag of $799 to $849.
Finally, the RTX 4080 Super (16GB) will be marginally faster than the existing RTX 4080, by something like 5% to 10%, and the price is rumored to be $999.
Correcting past mistakes?
So, it seems we have three new Super GPUs coming – as originally believed, including the ‘Ti Super’ model (we still hate that name) – and not just two as a recent rumor suggested. (Although the latter could still happen, if this piece of speculation turns out wrong, of course).
Given a trio of graphics cards are being prepared, a staggered release makes sense, and we’ve argued this in the past. That said, we were expecting the trio to be paced out over maybe months (or at least into February), rather than having them arrive week-by-week in January.
That seems to indicate that Nvidia is keen to rejig its Lovelace line-up at speed, and perhaps that’s no surprise, given all the tales of woeful RTX 4080 sales. By the way, IT Home repeats the rumor that the existing RTX 4070 Ti and RTX 4080 will be scrapped when these new refreshes arrive, which also makes sense – this bracket of the RTX 4000 range would become far too crowded otherwise, really. And it especially makes sense for the RTX 4080 which has been performing notably dismally sales-wise as mentioned.
Indeed, it very much feels like the RTX 4080 Super is the graphics card that the RTX 4080 should have been in the first place. The refresh is a relatively modest upgrade – the pessimistic scenario pegging it as just 5% quicker, if the rumors are right – but the price adjustment to $999 in the US will make it considerably more tempting than the MSRP of the RTX 4080 at $1,199. It’ll also put Nvidia’s GPU in a direct face-off with AMD’s RX 7900 XTX, the flagship RDNA 3 GPU that is also priced at $999.
We can hope that the pricing of the new RTX 4070 Super means Nvidia will push down the price of the RTX 4070 (which will remain in the Lovelace line-up, we should clarify) to create some distance – which could possibly be the best news of all for PC gamers.
When it comes to Nvidia, though, we’ve grown skeptical of good things happening in terms of pricing. But then again, if these revamps are all about correcting past mistakes and missteps in the mid-to-upper-range space, well, you never know…